In a pocket of the universe teeming with galaxies, the James Webb Space Telescope has focused on one of these galaxies so bright that it outshines its stars.
the James Webb Space Telescope He discovered a galaxy called GS-NDG-9422 – a world that existed about a billion years after the Big Bang, and in fact may provide the missing link in galactic evolution between the first creation of the universe. The stars The galaxies are well organized.
GS-NDG-9422 “will help us understand how the cosmic story began,” Alex Cameron, an observational astronomer at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, said in a recent article. press release. “My first thought when I looked at the galaxy’s spectrum was, ‘This is weird,’ which is exactly what the Webb Telescope was designed to detect.”
The newly discovered galaxy is indistinct, except for its unique light signature, which includes patterns that astronomers have never seen before. These features, which contribute to the light seen by Webb, are best explained by the galaxy’s extremely hot gas, rather than its stars, according to paper Cameron and his colleagues published it in June in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Computer models of gas clouds that are so heated by hot, massive stars that their stars outgrow their cosmic birthplaces were an “almost perfect match with Webb’s observations,” according to the statement. The newly discovered galaxy appears to be in the middle of a star birth race, its reservoirs of gas and dust being battered by countless photons of light. This is the light that the James Webb Space Telescope was able to see.
The telescope’s data about GS-NDG-9422 indicate that its stars “must be hotter and more massive than what we see in the local universe,” said study co-author Harley Katz, an assistant professor of astronomy. astronomy and Astrophysics At the University of Chicago. “This makes sense because the early universe was a very different environment.”
The new study found that star temperatures exceed 140,000 degrees Fahrenheit (80,000 degrees Celsius), which is twice the temperature expected for typical hot, massive stars.
Astronomers are relying on the James Webb Space Telescope’s penetrating infrared capabilities to piece together the early years of our universe, when the universe was surprisingly colorful. Number of galaxies Which It grew very large very quickly And it was Hot spots of star formation.
Discover how rare exotic galaxies like GS-NDG-9422 are time It will allow astronomers to improve models of galaxy evolution.
“It’s a very exciting time, to be able to use the Webb Telescope to explore this time universe “It was previously inaccessible. We are only at the beginning of new discoveries and understanding,” Cameron said in the statement.
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